Floods in Macedonia kill one, hundreds evacuatedSkopje (AFP) Feb 26, 2013 -
One person was killed and several hundred people were evacuated as floods caused by heavy rains hit north and east Macedonia, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

The victim, a 51-year-old man, was swept away as he tried to cross a river near the northern town of Kumanovo, Aleksandar Gjorgjijev said.

Several hundred people were evacuated from villages threatened by floods, while some 1,500 inhabitants were left isolated in the east after floodwaters swept away two bridges to their villages, the Macedonian Crisis Management Centre said.

Torrents also threatened the Pistica dam in eastern Macedonia and authorities worried it would collapse.

Parts of the Sveti Nikole town of some 20,000 inhabitants was left without electricity, and about 48,000 residents in the town of Stip were warned not to drink tap water due to contamination of wells.

Heavy rains, falling since Saturday, are not forecast to stop before Thursday, meteorologists said.

Scientists said Monday they have identified a physical mechanism behind the extreme weather that has plagued many parts of the world in recent years -- and that it is tied to climate change.

Since 2010, for example, the United States and Russia have each suffered scorching heat waves, while Pakistan saw unprecedented flooding.

Scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have traced the events to a disturbance in the air currents in the northern hemisphere, in a new study out Monday in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"An important part of the global air motion in the mid-latitudes of the Earth normally takes the form of waves wandering around the planet, oscillating between the tropical and the Arctic regions," lead author Vladimir Petoukhov said in a statement.

"During several recent extreme weather events, these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks. So instead of bringing in cool air after having brought warm air in before, the heat just stays," he said.

In an ecosystem ill-adapted to long periods of extreme heat, the stress can be disastrous, with high death tolls, forest fires, and agricultural losses.

For instance, during Russia's 2010 heat wave -- the worst in its recorded history -- wildfires spread out of control, killing dozens of people, burning down thousands of houses and threatening military and nuclear installations.

Global warming, despite its name, is not uniform across the planet. At the poles the bump in temperatures -- amplified by shrinking snow cover and ice -- is greater than in the swathes between, the scientists explained.

This reduces the temperature differences between the Arctic and the middle latitudes, which affects the flow of air around the globe.

In addition, continents heat and cool more rapidly than large bodies of water, the scientists said.

These two factors "result in an unnatural pattern of the mid-latitude air flow, so that for extended periods the slow synoptic waves get trapped," Petoukhov said.

Fellow author and PIK director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber cautioned that the 32-year period used in the study is too short for definitive conclusions.

"The suggested physical process increases the probability of weather extremes, but additional factors certainly play a role as well, including natural variability," he added.

Nevertheless, he called the new research "quite a breakthrough," that helps explain the relationship between the spate of weather extremes and climate change.

US tornadoes strike southern states, 60 injuredMiami (AFP) Feb 11, 2013
Several powerful tornadoes ripped through the southern US states of Mississippi and Alabama injuring at least 60 people and destroying hundreds of homes at the weekend, emergency officials said Monday.
The city of Hattiesburg in Mississippi's Forrest County bore the brunt of the storms, with heavy rain continuing to lash the region and create a risk of flooding.
"Two people were critical ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency.
All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement